Marikina City is dubbed as one of the IT hubs in Metro Manila. The city boasts of a strong business community as it hosts business establishments from multi-national companies such as call centers, real estate firms, banks and ICT firms to numerous Internet Cafes.  

Optical Media Board Chairman Chairman Edu Manzano shows the pirated CD’s and DVD’s that they recovered and confiscated.

"Marikina city is one of the most competitive cities in Metro Manila and the business industry is clearly thriving here. But more than hosting numerous businesses, the city should first and foremost recognize the importance of enforcing a strong Intellectual Property that would offer a certain level of protection to its investors and this includes getting business establishments under its territory to comply to the IPR law," said Edu Manzano, Chairman of the OMB.

Software is a productivity tool indispensable to any business establishment nowadays. Under the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, software piracy is a crime and is punishable of up to nine years imprisonment and a fine of up to 1.5 million pesos.

Agents of the Enforcement and Investigation Division (EID) of the OMB did not waste any time to conduct routine inspections in the business establishments of Marikina City particularly its Internet cafes to look for business owners guilty of using pirated software in its operations.

"Many business owners are taking advantage of the rampant piracy by using unlicensed software to cut down costs. The sad part is, these business owners are unaware of the severe consequences of piracy to the local software industry and to the local and national economy," added Manzano.

During last year’s anti-piracy crackdown, the OMB granted a reprieve to Internet cafes requesting for additional time to sort out their software inventories in the wake of inspections by OMB agents.

"In light of the communicated request made by the I-café association of Marikina and other cities last year, we gave them until this month to ensure that their members were able to legalize their software. Businesses must now be prepared to show proof that what they are using is legitimate or we will file cases against the owners," shared Manzano.

Software piracy remains to be one of the major inhibitors to the growth of the local IT industry in the Philippines. Losses from piracy have gone up from US$ 76 million in 2005 to US$ 119 million (Php 5.59 billion) last year. Significantly, these losses reduce job opportunities and tax revenues for governments, discourage foreign and local investments and reduce incentive from innovation.

"It’s about time that the local government units step up to take an active role in our anti-piracy drive. If our cities want to keep the business industry thriving in its locality and encourage investors to start a business in their place then the city officials should start recognizing the importance of enforcing a strong Intellectual Property law," declare Manzano.

The previous year was witness to the "all-out war" declared by the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team (PAPT), which the OMB is a part of together with the NBI and the PNP, against all forms of business establishments using or distributing pirated software. In the past 12 months, the team was at the frontline of the battle to eradicate the menace of software piracy in the country.

Amidst the rampant piracy, the presence of the PAPT has shown that the law has teeth. Nobody turned a deaf ear on the PAPT’s drive against software piracy. In fact, one of the major accomplishments of the team for 2007 was the agreement that OMB was able to seal with major mall owners, requiring all mall-tenants engaged in computer and computer-related to use licensed software.

For the last quarter of 2007 alone, the OMB has conducted operations against hundreds of business establishments including call centers, corporations, computer stores and Internet cafes located in key cities and business districts around Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.

This resulted to the confiscation of 141,317 business software optical discs, four dozen CPUs and other paraphernalia used for copyright infringement amounting to Php 45,704,950.00 worth of items seized.

For the OMB, the war against software pirates is far from over. "We will work harder to ensure that all forms of businesses are complying with the law. The public should expect a more intensified campaign against businesses using pirated software in 2008," ended Manzano.